H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. founded 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

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World Toy House display advertisement, *San Antonio Express*, 6 March 1975, p. 108 — "Toys Carrying This Mark are safe play-tested age-grouped," with the circular Toy House logo, a retail display photo, and two children in the foreground. Footer reads "World Toy House, Inc. Saint Paul 2, Minnesota."

By March 1975, Kenneth L. Wagner — who had purchased the Hoffmann-Hayman Warehouse Co. property at 601 Delaware Street from G. P. Menger in August 1972 — was operating as B&W Service Co., a wholesale toy distributor. This San Antonio Express display ad, two days after the step-van classified also placed from 601 Delaware, shows Wagner’s line: World Toy House, Inc. of Saint Paul, Minnesota. The same building that had roasted and vacuum-packed coffee for sixty years was now moving toy rack displays to “Food, Drug and Department Stores Everywhere.”

The Toy House brand positioned its products as “safe, play-tested, age-grouped” — consumer-product safety language familiar from the era of the nascent CPSC (established 1972). The ad’s retail-rack photograph and children-forward imagery were standard trade advertising for self-service toy gondolas of the period.

Transcription

Header:

Toys Carrying This Mark

Logo: THE TOY HOUSE — REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. (circular mark with house graphic)

Body copy (script lettering):

are safe play-tested age-grouped

Sure to be enjoyed with lasting interest

[Photograph: retail self-service toy display rack, fully stocked with packaged toys; two smiling children in foreground]

Lower panel:

POPULAR PRICED

On Self Service Displays in Food, Drug and Department Stores Everywhere

Footer badges (three boxes):

AGE GROUPED FOR YOUR GUIDANCE

[The Toy House logo]

POPULAR PRICED · PLAY TESTED FOR YOUR SAFETY

LOOK FOR RIGHT AGE GROUP HERE

Trademark line:

THE TOY HOUSE is a registered Trade Mark of WORLD TOY HOUSE, INC. SAINT PAUL 2, MINNESOTA

Page 108 visible at lower left of clip.

Source

  • San Antonio Express (San Antonio, Tex.), 6 March 1975 (Thursday).
  • Page visible on scan: 108. The knowledge-base event record cites “Page 45” — discrepancy to verify against microfilm or Newspapers.com page locator.

See also: Step-van classifieds at 601 Delaware, 4 March 1975 — the two ads together place B&W Service Co. at the address in the same week.

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